Breastmilk Captures My Imagination, part 2
I know you were wondering about the part 2, right?
I just read the book City of Light, about Buffalo, NY at the turn of the century. It mentions wet nurses, and that got me thinking. Wet nurses must have gone out of style due to the burgeoning formula industry and the rise of the middle class (which meant less households employed servants). But now that breastmilk is back in style, so to speak, and pumping has become relatively commonplace, it seems like wet nurses could make a resurgence.
Now, since I'm talking about the purchase of bodily fluids for feeding infants, I don't think it would ever be quite an FDA-approved industry. However, after sitting in at my first-ever brestfeeding drop-in class yesterday, I could see how there could arise small, local black-market enterprises. Some women need more milk, and some produce too much. I imagine the covert exchange of Lansinoh bags, bartered for babysitting time, in the aisles of Babies R Us and at local coffeeshops.
I was kidding about the bartering. It's more likely women would give it away for free. Kind of like blood donation - if someone demands payment for it, you probably don't want what they're selling. Of course, then maybe lazy, selfish women would try to get in on the deal, figuring "Why be the cow when you can get the milk for free?"
3 comments:
OMG -- Just yesterday, a friend suggested I find someone who will let me feed their baby! There's a woman I'm acquainted with who doesn't have enough milk, but her baby breastfeeds well. I need more time with a baby at my breast so I can make more milk, but my baby is a pirhana. It should be a perfect exchange, so why does it seem like such a strange idea?
Milk banks don't accept small donations, because they have to do so much testing (HIV, hepatitis, thrush, etc.), but between friends, you could go on trust.
What's truly weird is a woman my mom knew decades ago. In a large group, if a baby cried, she'd just feed them, without asking the mother! YIKES!
I know that milk banks do exist. I read about them somewhere... I forget where. You can bank it, donate it and buy it but I believe you cannot sell it. You can read about this if you google 'breast milk bank.'
Yes - I remember being asked (when I rented my pump) if I would be interested in donating "excess" to a bank. Intriguing thought, although I would not be as trusting to accept another woman's milk for my own child.
Funny how I would accept someone else's blood, but not their milk. And yet I wouldn't take a cow's blood, but will eat products produced with cow's milk. Hmmmmm.
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